Cold as Ice
by GuinevereKoopa
Summary: It's dead now. Sorry. Enjoy what there is of it. Amarant-Freya. Evil moogle named Boko and her chocobo sidekick Mogli cause problems for the group. Freya's confused about her feelings for Amarant.
1. Separated

Cold as Ice- Separated  
  
Author's Note: ...Why an Amarant/Freya fic? Because I thought that the sheer ridiculousness was enough to carry the entire humour of a story. Ever notice how they're always hanging together in the game? That's where I got the idea. Anyway, stardard disclaimer-y stuff, I don't own FF9, I don't even work for Square, and damn I WISH I coulda created these characters. But I didn't. Hey. Whatever. Just enjoy.  
  
  
"The Ice Cavern is so cold..." Eiko shivered. "Are you cold, Vivi?"  
  
"U-um...yeah..." the shy child stuttered back, adjusting his floppy hat on his head.  
  
"The 'Ice' in the name would imply it was cold," Amarant said, his tone as cold as the air around them.  
  
"We won't be here long," Dagger said cheerily. "We're just delivering that letter to Mois so we can help the Moogles get Mognet back up."  
  
"Could we hurry, please," he responded with his arrogant tone, as if he had more pressing matters to attend to.  
  
"Chill out, Amarant!" said Zidane with a grin. Eiko and Vivi giggled at the intended pun, as he continued, "Mois isn't too far. Nothing's gonna happen."  
  
Amarant didn't respond. Freya stepped forward and glanced about. "Where's the path, Zidane?"  
  
"Just across that thin, unstable-looking ice bridge!"  
  
They all stared at him, but he ignored that and started across the ice bridge. One by one, the others follwed. The ones that had been to the cavern previously realized that the layout was totally different, possibly due to Author's Creative License.  
  
They made it across with no incident, and ran to find Mois, the Moogle that had been trapped in ice. (Fooled ya, didn't I? You thought they'd fall.)  
  
Zidane skidded suddenly to a stop, and everyone stopped (or attempted to) behind him.  
  
"What is it now?" Steiner demanded, agitated as usual.  
  
"The ice here doesn't look like solid ground," the thief answered, kneeling beside the ice patch in question.  
  
"The ice where?" Eiko asked. "It all looks solid to me."  
  
"It looks almost like it's on top of just...air..." he mused.  
  
"Who cares?" The interruption came, of course, from Amarant. "Let's just forget the ice and deliver that damn letter to that damn mog."  
  
Zidane shrugged jovially while Dagger threw a glare at the tall red-haired Amarant. "Fine, we'll just go," and Zidane walked across the ice by which he'd been so captivated. The others followed, Amarant and Freya last, as they usually were.  
  
With a sudden crashing thud, something dropped from the ceiling, and the impact shockwave caused the ice that wasn't actually over ground to shatter.  
  
The group fought the beast that had falled from the cavern ceiling and defeated it after a long-ish battle. The battle may have just seemed longer because of Quina's constant, "It good to eat?" Once it was defeated, Zidane turned to the group to congratulate them on the fight.  
  
He hesitated. "Where did Amarant and Freya go?" he asked, looking around.  
  
"That ice you were talking about is gone..." Dagger pointed out.  
  
"Wh-what if they...f-fell...?" Vivi stammered, adjusting his hat nervously.  
  
Zidane stepped up to the edge of the rift caused by the ice's collapse and looked in. "...Sure is deep..." he muttered. "If they did fall in, they're probably long gone..."  
  
"Throw a rock in to see how deep it is!" said Eiko. Without awaiting a response, the blue-haired child picked up a large rock and chucked it into the hole.  
  
They all waited in perfect silence for what seemed to be twenty minutes, at least. In truth it was only five minutes or so, but the anxiety had a way of getting to them. You know how it is.  
  
Thereafter, they decided that the pit must have no bottom. Zidane, nonetheless, volunteered to climb down and save the two teammates he'd just lost, but Dagger forbade it. Besides, the sides of the hole were smooth as silk, and he wouldn't have been able to climb down anyway.  
  
So, reluctantly, they went to finish their initial mission, giving up Freya and Amarant both for dead. Or at least for a later plot point. 


	2. Lost

Cold as Ice- Lost  
  
Author's Note: You want more do you? Amazing. Okay! I'm just glad I've actually got somebody reading this... And on a random sidenote, I resolve to never let this get mushy. I just don't see those two being mushy. That's just wrong. And um, yes, I use Dragoon instead of Dragon Knight. Because dammit, they're the same thing!  
  
  
Freya awoke when she heard a shout of, "Ow! Hey!" It was Amarant's voice, characteristically emotionless, which was odd because the exclamation was one that one expected to hear with an angry tone.  
  
She sat up and glanced around, looking for him. They appeared to be in some sort of huge underground cavern, with smooth rock walls that climbed straight up into the sky. Or the ground, as the case may be. Her hat was on the ground. It had removed itself from her head when she'd fallen, apparently deciding that it would rather land on her than have her land on it. She picked it up and put it back on as she stood.  
  
Amarant was standing there, glaring up at the thin line of blue far above them that marked the spot where they'd fallen through the ground. At least, it seemed like he was glaring. One never could tell, with his hair always in his eyes like that. In fact, one even wondered how he could see the thin blue line he was supposedly glaring at, or if he could even see at all.  
  
"What happened?" she asked, still curious as to the reason behind his emotionless angry exclamation of pain.  
  
"Somebody threw a rock at me."  
  
She couldn't help but laugh at that. She didn't know why, really. Maybe just because of the sheer humourousness of the idea of somebody throwing a rock down here for the specific purpose of beaning Amarant in the head.  
  
He threw a glare at her, which was decidedly better than him throwing a rock at her, and she stopped, suddenly serious. She looked up at the thin blue streak above them and asked, "Can we get back up somehow?"  
  
"The walls are all smooth," he answered. "We can't climb it. And I don't think even a Dragoon can jump that far."  
  
"Probably not..." Indeed, it was quite impossible. She had no idea how far they'd fallen, but it was true. Even a Dragoon couldn't jump that high. "We...we can't be stuck down here..." she said, half protest, half worry.  
  
"Well we can't get back up, either."  
  
"There has to be a way!" she insisted. A Dragoon never just gives himself up for dead. If there's a way to live, he'll find it. She could find a way back up. She HAD to.  
  
"What do you propose we do then?" His voice held a hint of scorn, as if he was directly challenging her to get them out of here.  
  
"We'll just...try to find another path." She was keeping her level head. A Dragoon doesn't panic! He never loses his wits when faced with danger. Although... If she didn't find a way out, she'd never get to see her darling Fratley again...  
  
It didn't matter that he had no idea who she was, that he'd lost his memory somehow, that he hadn't even the slightest clue of their history together... She still loved him, and as long as she knew he was alive... But she'd never see him again, not if she was stuck down here with the Flaming Emotionless Idiot for the rest of however long the rest of her life was destined to be.  
  
That one thing was what made her want to panic the most. To have finally found Sir Fratley, though he didn't know her anymore, and then now, so close to losing him again...  
  
"Are you done? 'Cause I think I see a way out."  
  
"Huh?" She snapped out of her thoughts and realized with sudden embarrassment that tears had been running down her face at her thoughts of Sir Fratley. She blushed and moved to hide the change of colouration by adjusting her hat, so that her arms blocked Amarant's view of her face. "I uh... Ahem... Let's get going," she said, nearly dead from embarrassment that he'd seen her crying. Crying was a sign of weakness. If you cried, you were weak. It said that somewhere in the Warrior's Code, she was sure.  
  
He said nothing in response, and instead walked toward the connecting cave that he'd seen. How he'd seen it in the extremely dim blue lighting, not to mention through that thick mane of hair covering his eyes, was beyond her, but that didn't really matter. As long as she got out.  
  
She followed him, tying to keep her thoughts away from Sir Fratley. She didn't want to appear weak. Not to Amarant, not to anyone. 


	3. Forgotten

Cold as Ice- Forgotten  
  
Author's Note: I'm still shocked you guys want me to continue this so badly. But hey! I can't disappoint my fans. I'm just glad I have fans... I wanna keep 'em.  
Uhm, restatement of the disclaimer, I don't own the game I don't own the characters and the only thing I do own here so far is the story. I'll own a couple of the characters later, but that's a different story. Not for a few chapters.  
  
  
"This just doesn't feel right..." Zidane muttered. He was sitting just outside the entrance to the Ice Cavern, and the others were gathered nearby.  
  
"They're dead, Zidane. There's no way they could be alive. And even if they were...we can't save them," Dagger told him. But she didn't sound too confident herself.  
  
None of them had really wanted to leave Freya and Amarant behind, but there had been no possible way to save them. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Steiner had wanted to leave them behind, but then again, Steiner wouldn't have missed anybody except for Vivi or Dagger.  
  
But everyone ELSE regretted having to leave them behind. Really.  
  
Zidane had made a number of suggestions, but when they'd gone back to see if any of them would work out, they found the Ice Cavern to have returned to its original layout, thusly making the crevice the pair had fallen into nonexistant.  
  
It was hopeless. There was no way they could get Amarant or Freya back. The two were long gone.  
  
Zidane hated it. He hated leaving people behind and he hated not being able to do anything and most of all he hated how what had just happened made absolutely no sense.  
  
"What do we do now, Zidane?" asked Dagger, taking a seat beside him in the grass.  
  
"I don't know... I wanna go back and save them, but we can't."  
  
"I hate to say it, Zidane, but...maybe we should just move on..."  
  
No reply came from the thief. He knew she was right. They should move on and forget about Freya and Amarant.  
  
But...they'd been a part of the team. He couldn't just leave his teammates behind. "I can't abandon them!" he protested loudly. The others all turned to look at him, but he ignored the stares.  
  
Dagger shook her head. "We have to, Zidane. There's nothing we can do."  
  
"This sucks."  
  
And indeed, those two words summed up the situation rather well.  
  
After a while, they finally decided to go save the world without the other two. They did stay long enough, however, to make signs marking the graves of Amarant and Freya near the entrance of the cavern. 


	4. Darkness

Cold as Ice- Darkness  
  
Author's Note: You want longer? Well shucks... All right, I guess I'll give you longer. I'm making the chapters kinda short because I update a lot, you see.... But I suppose I could give you a nice long one. Note that I'm not really sure where this is going.... And this part is mostly humour, so yeah... Next part might not make any sense either!  
  
  
They were stumbling around in the dark. Well, Freya was stumbling. Amarant, amazingly enough, seemed to be able to see well enough to not run into the walls. Usually there was some way to light the caverns they traveled in. Luminescent lichen, torches along the walls, even a randomly placed fire spell. But there was nothing now, neither of them knew any fire magic, and the walls were completely bare of any life, luminous lichens included.  
  
Freya was cursing her bad luck, her thoughts still dwelling on Fratley and her not being able to get out.  
  
Suddenly she found her thoughts dwelling on Amarant and how he'd seen her crying. She didn't know why, she shouldn't really have cared. It's not like she was close to him or anything. What did it really matter if he thought she was weak, if she knew she wasn't?  
  
Then she suddenly found her thoughts interrupted by a burst of stars in front of her eyes as she suddenly ran into a very hard surface, most likely the cave wall.  
  
Amarant heard the faint squeak that she issued as her head connected with the rock and he stopped. He turned around to look and somehow (SOMEHOW!) saw what had happened. He didn't bother to ask whether she was all right. He didn't really care.  
  
"What the...?" Freya muttered, removing her hat to better rub the tender spot where her head had met the rock.  
  
"Clumsy," he shot at her. Actually it was emotionless, but it was almost as if he'd scornfully shot the comment at her.  
  
"I am not! I just can't see," she replied as she brushed her hair back into place with the claws of one hand and smoothly replaced her large hat.  
  
"Really."  
  
"Yes really!" she shouted at him. She was getting sick of this cave and not being able to see and the constant thoughts about Fratley and then the sudden hating Fratley for not remembering her and then liking him again and realizing she'd never see him and... Actually most of her anger had nothing to do with Amarant. But he was there, so she shouted at him.  
  
"Maybe that's because you've got darkness cast on you."  
  
She blinked. That had caught her off guard. "I do?"  
  
"No. But it could have been the reason."  
  
She blinked again. She was confused now. "Uhh..."  
  
"Forget it."  
  
"Well if I don't have any bad status effects on me, why can you see and I can't?" she demanded.  
  
"I dunno."  
  
"...Can you see?"  
  
"Not really."  
  
She blinked, and then suddenly got angry. "So this is the blind leading the blind!"  
  
"Not really."  
  
"STOP SAYING THAT! Give me a straight answer!"  
  
"Well I can't very well give you a crooked one, can I?"  
  
Now he was just being aggravating.  
  
"I've been using the wall to lead us," he answered, unprompted. "Nothing else, though. There is nothing else. No faint wind current, no sounds of life, no pinpoint of light ahead. Just the wall. Which is fairly solid, I'm sure you've noticed."  
  
"Yes I have..." She was still mad about this. So he couldn't see here either! Well that wasn't much of a shock, what with that...what the heck WAS that hairstyle, anyway? Did he even HAVE eyes? Now she was just mad.  
  
"Calm down. That's not gonna get us anywhere."  
  
"Calm?! I can't be calm! Not when you're leading us here and I may never get back to the surface and I may never see Sir Fratley ever again AND I'LL BE STUCK DOWN HERE WITH YOU THE REST OF MY LIFE! I CAN'T BE CALM!" And indeed, she wasn't calm.  
  
He didn't say anything for a while. She stood there glaring at (where she thought) he was, fuming. Finally, after several minutes of silence, he asked, "Are you done?"  
  
"Yeah, I think so."  
  
"Good, let's go."  
  
Go where? she wondered. Was there even anywhere to go? What if this cave just connected to itself a thousand different times and they never, ever got out? Damn, she was starting to panic again. Panicking was bad. No panic! There had to be a way out. There always was.  
  
As she walked behind Amarant, one hand on the wall, he was walking likewise, although in front of her and not behind himself, thinking as well. Mostly he thought "I should get a haircut..." and "Damn, she needs to cool down." Not very interesting fic thoughts. Let's go back to Freya.  
  
Hmm...nope, still thinking about Fratley and how much of a dork Amarant is. Well shucks, isn't this a predicament? Let's have something happen.  
  
Suddenly, without warning, and quite unexpectedly, Amarant saw light ahead. Not a lot of light, mind you. Just a little. But it was enough to make him stop and say, "Hey..." Which in turn caused Freya to stop (though that was because she walked right into his back and fell on her tail) and shout "HEY!"  
  
"Light ahead," he said, and pointed.  
  
"Wonderful," she muttered, picking herself up from the ground. Then she suddenly realized what he'd said. "Light?!" She nearly climbed over him in her attempt to see the light at the end of the rather narrow tunnel that the cave had become. "We're almost out!" she cried gleefully.  
  
"Not really..."  
  
"QUIT SAYING THAT!"  
  
He paused at that reaction before he decided to continue. "We've been going down, if you'd notice, not up. And we entered the Ice Cavern from the lower entrance. So we're underground, not above ground."  
  
"...Damn." But she was still happier now. There was light! That meant life! Or at least luminescent lichens! And then she could see and not run into things. "What are we waiting for?! Let's go!"  
  
"What are you, six?"  
  
"Walk or I'll climb over you to get there!" she threatened.  
  
"Yes, no man in his right mind would ever want a woman to climb over him."  
  
She blinked, taken aback. She couldn't tell if he was serious or sarcastic, but she was guessing the latter. She'd never heard Amarant be sarcastic. Maybe because his tone of voice never changed...  
  
While she was standing there thinking, he started walking. She ran after him and walked behind him when she caught up. He was acting differently now. Slightly so, but differently. Then again, so was she. Maybe because they were alone and both only worrying about themselves rather than the group. Not caring what the other thought.  
  
That couldn't be it. Maybe she was just imagining it.  
  
The light was still distant. Closer, but distant. It stayed distant until they were close. Which makes sense, I mean, really. It just took a while for it to go from distant to close, and it was all sorts of things in between.  
  
Amarant stopped before entering the cavern the light opened into. The passage had widened in the meantime so that Freya was able to stand abreast of him. She asked why they weren't going in immediately, and he asked if she wanted to die. I get that, don't you? I mean, it's a logical response.  
  
Freya didn't think so. "What the hell do you mean by that!?" she demanded.  
  
"I mean it could be a trap," he clarified.  
  
"...Oh." She paused. "...Who the heck puts a trap all the way down here?"  
  
"People."  
  
"What sort of people?"  
  
"The same people who put traps in really deep caverns on the off chance that travelers would pass by."  
  
"...Isn't that exactly what this would be?"  
  
"That's why it makes sense."  
  
It didn't really make sense to her, but she ignored it. She ran into the light, which opened up into a vast cavern. Amarant followed her in, but before they got a decent chance to look around, the lights mysteriously vanished.  
  
A strange figure appeared in the middle of the room, backlit by a random dramatic soft blue light. Freya's last thought before the chapter ended was, "Well damn." 


	5. Villain

Cold as Ice- Villain  
  
Author's Note: I don't own the concepts of any FF9 characters, OR of Moogles or chocobos. I do however own the concepts of Mogli and Boko (though Boko was the name of a chocobo in FF5. Hence its being a chocobo name. It was either Choco or Boko and both are taken. I used Boko because Choco was taken in 9, and Boko was taken in 5. ...yeah.) So I own Boko and Mogli. Uh, have fun?  
  
  
Suddenly the room lit up again, like somebody had flipped a lightswitch. Which somebody had, in all actuality, just done. The figure before them fell over, and Amarant and Freya immediately (well, maybe not immediately) realized that it was a Moogle.  
  
She had been standing on a stool, with a blue spotlight behind her for the dramatic lighting. She was now on the ground, tangled in the obscenely long cloak she wore, and fervently attempting to rectify that situation.  
  
Finally (as Amarant and Freya stared without knowing exactly WHAT emotion with which to stare), she decided to just take the cloak off and crawl out of it. She had a pink feather stuck behind one ear, both of which were pierced with large gold hoops. She wore the purple vest common among female Moogles, but along with that she wore a mini-skirt. Yes, a Mog in a mini-skirt. A black leathery one, at that.  
  
She stood and dusted herself off, and then proceeded to climb back onto the stool and sit there.  
  
Amarant and Freya continued to stare.  
  
The Mog cleared her throat and waited for them to say something. They didn't. Finally she sparked the conversation by saying, "You're boring, kupo..."  
  
"The hell...?" was Amarant's response. And he actually, amazingly, and surprisingly enough, and FURTHERMORE, astonishingly, sounded confused.  
  
"So somebody fell in the trap, kupo..." she mused, smoothing out her leather skirt. "I was hoping that'd happen eventually, kupo."  
  
"You mean it's YOUR fault we're trapped down here?!" Freya exclaimed. She was starting to get angry. Again.  
  
"Sorry, I'm a product of society, kupo. An EVIL product of a hateful society, kupo, and so I've decided to take out my will on random passersby. Kupo," she explained, quite civilly.  
  
"Can you let us go home now?" asked Amarant. He was back to emotionless now.  
  
"I haven't taken out my will on you yet, kupo!" She jumped down from the stool and grabbed the cloak, clasping it about her neck. "So no."  
  
"What's your problem?!" Freya demanded. "Why can't we go?"  
  
"For one thing, you don't know my story. For another, you'll probably hate me too once you hear it. And then I'll have to kill you for hating me. Kupo."  
  
They both blinked. At least, Freya did. Amarant... I don't think he even knows if he blinked or not.  
  
The Mog turned around and walked a few paces, the cloak dragging on the ground behind her. Suddenly she turned back to Amarant and Freya and demanded, "Remove your hats! Be respectful, kupo!"  
  
Freya removed her hat and combed her hair back with one hand, so that the hat hair wasn't quite as bad. Amarant on the other hand was just confused. He wasn't wearing a hat. The Mog glared at him and demanded that they BOTH remove their hats.  
  
"I'm not wearing one!" he exclaimed. And yes, he did exclaim it! My goodness.  
  
The Mog blinked, amazed. "That's your hair, kupo? You should get it cut!"  
  
Amarant sighed. In truth he'd been thinking about getting it cut, but only because he was starting to have trouble seeing. Not because anybody else kept telling him to cut it or anything.  
  
The Moogle "hmph"ed and turned again. She started walking to the large cabinet on the other side of the room. When she got there, she flung the door open (there was a handle down at Mog height just for her) and revealed the Chocobo standing within. The wall behind the cabinet was lined with switches and things.  
  
The Chocobo had yellow feathers, as most chocobos do, but a few of the feathers on his wingtips were blue, and his tailfeathers were black. He also had a few of the feathers of his crest that were black, and the claws on his feet were blue. He looked quite befuddled and confused.  
  
"Kupo! You screwed up! You weren't supposed to turn on the lights until I was done being all dramatic, kupo!" she shouted at him. He gave a rather pitiful "Kwehh..." in return and she slammed the door on him. She walked back to the stool, stood on it again, and said, "Dramatic lighting, kupo!"  
  
The lights went off again and once more she looked imposing, backlit by the dramatic blue. "I am--"  
  
"Is this necessary anymore?" Amarant inquired. "We kinda wanna get back home before dinner."  
  
"WELL!" she responded, offended. "Fine. Kupo, back to the normal lighting." A protesting kweh came from the cabinet, but the lights came back on and the Mog hopped down from the stool. She removed the cloak and tossed it over the furniture piece.  
  
Amarant and Freya glanced at each other, both confused as to what was going on.  
  
"I can see you're confused, kupo. That's to be expected." She paused and then continued. "Well, since I can't judge you until you hear my story, kupo, here's my story. Why I'm an evil little Moogle, kupo. Society, and all."  
  
The two just stood there, confused, waiting for her to continue.  
  
"...Are you going to stand there all day, kupo, or follow me?" she demanded, turning to look at them.  
  
Freya and Amarant looked at one another, shrugged, and then followed the Mog off through a connecting tunnel to their right. The Chocobo fell out of the cabinet and followed as well. 


	6. Hopeless

Cold as Ice- Hopeless  
  
Author's Note: Yo, Fan Fic Girl, if you don't like it, don't read it. I write for humour. POINTLESS humour. It's in my info, look it up. If you don't happen to like my particular nonsensical sense of humour, then just don't READ my particular nonsensical humour. On another note, I like to end on cliffhanger...ish...pieces. Gives me somewhere to continue from. On the other hand, thanks for all you other people who commented. Reviews make me write. Well, they make me upload at least. I'm glad the REST of you like it and think it's funny. 'Specially you, Era Yachi! That comment made my day.  
  
  
In the next room, which was actually rather neat and tidy and not too cave-like in appearance, the Mog stopped walking. She was standing almost in the center of the room. Amarant and Freya stopped as well, just beyond the door.  
  
"So, kupo, here's my story," she began, not bothering to turn and look at them. The Chocobo entered the room and stood just behind the two. "I was raised in a small Moogle town, kupo... A small town where I was shunned. I was the black sheep of this homeland of mine, kupo..."  
  
"Why?" Freya asked.  
  
"Because..." She paused and took a deep breath, dramatically, as if she was about to break down in tears. "Because my name is Boko! There, you know my horrible secret now! You can hate me too, just like all the others! Just because... I have a Chocobo's name..." She paused briefly, and then added, "Kupo."  
  
Amarant didn't say anything. He thought this was all very stupid. Freya on the other hand said, "You poor thing, you... Why would they hate you for that?"  
  
"Because, kupo, I'm a Moogle! Not a Chocobo! Moogles don't have Chocobo names, kupo, they have Moogle names!"  
  
"Why should we even care? It's not our fault your life sucks," Amarant responded coldly.  
  
"Why you...!" She immediately whirled around and glared at him. Which was hard to do what with how adorable Moogles are and all... "That's just the attitude that made me evil in the first place, kupo!"  
  
"I don't care. I just wanna get home before dinner."  
  
"Just like I said, kupo, you hate me too! Mogli, throw the switch!" she ordered, pointing at the Chocobo standing behind the two. He immediately kicked the large blue button on the wall and the floor fell out from beneath them and closed instantly above them, locking them below the room.  
  
Mogli the Chocobo and Boko the Moogle paused for a moment, looking at the spot where the rift had momentarily been. "Well, kupo, we've been planning this for a while," she said.  
  
"K-weh," he agreed.  
  
"...Would you please wark, kupo? It's so odd to hear a Chocobo kweh."  
  
"Kw...wark..."  
  
There was a pause, then Boko shrugged and left the room. Mogli followed her.  
  
~  
  
And so, Freya and Amarant, our heroes, were again trapped. Only this time they truly were trapped, with no cave leading anywhere. Just a rectangularly prismatic room with just one escape route, and that was how they'd entered.  
  
Freya stood and went through the motions of picking up her hat and putting it back on her head, and then she realized that she didn't have her hat. She must've dropped it when she'd fallen. She glanced up and realized that it was entirely dark here, no light sources at all. She promptly sat down again, to avoid having her head hit anything as she blindly stumbled.  
  
Suddenly her mind focused on Fratley again. She loved him. She couldn't stop thinking about him at such a dire time... There was no way out of here. She couldn't help it. She started crying again.  
  
Amarant, in the meantime, was just sitting there, pondering the situation calmly and thoughtfully. Sure, it was his fault they were here, but what did he care about a Mog who'd lived an awful life just because she was too dumb to change her name?  
  
He realized with some annoyance that he could hear Freya crying. Probably over her boyfriend. That's all she'd been doing, he was certain. Sulking over her boyfriend whom she hadn't seen in years and who didn't even know who she was. Why she still even cared about the guy was a mystery to him.  
  
He wondered briefly why he even cared why she cared about Fratley. Then he wondered briefly whether or not he really SHOULD cut his hair, and decided against it. Besides, it wouldn't help him see any better in the total darkness surrounding them. Or figure out why he cared that... Oh, this is just confusing.  
  
He didn't think he WANTED to see any better in the total darkness surrounding them. Seeing somebody cry is always a lot more embarrassing for both parties than hearing somebody cry. Especially sobbing such as Freya was doing now.  
  
He sighed. "Would you stop that?" he asked finally. It was beginning to grate on his nerves. She gasped, not so much at the fact that he'd asked to her stop crying but moreso at the fact that she'd forgotten he was there in the first place.  
  
She wiped her eyes hurriedly, despite the fact that he couldn't see her anyway, and quickly said, "Sorry..."  
  
Both were silent for a while. Freya was struggling with her emotions. It was all so hopeless now... She'd never see her dearest Fratley again, not unless they could get out of here... And then out of the mountain entirely... And that was never going to happen.  
  
Somewhere in that long silence, Amarant decided to ask something that had been on his mind for a while. "Why do you still care about him, anyway?" His tone wasn't the serious, cold tone that he always had, but rather a curious tone. He really did want to know, he was genuinely curious.  
  
The question caught Freya off-guard. She was silent for a while, considering her answer. Why DID she still care about Fratley? It was true that he had no idea who she was now... But before... Before that he had loved her very dearly. But then...why had he gone off in the first place? What had happened to him, to make him forget his true love?  
  
"Because..." she began, uncertainly, "because I know that...that he still loves me... Somewhere... Even if he doesn't remember me, when he gets to know me again, he'll love me again... I know it." But she really didn't. She had to tell herself that on a regular basis. She couldn't just believe it in her heart, that he still loved her. That somewhere deep within himself, a part of him remembered, and loved her still.  
  
She didn't know. She didn't believe.  
  
Amarant could tell. Just by the tone of her voice, the unsure hesitation in her words, he could tell. He didn't say anything about it though. Instead he lay back on the ground and closed his eyes (not that anybody could tell whether they were open or not, including himself), and said, "I'll get us out of here. But it's been a long day. Get some sleep."  
  
Though Amarant was sound asleep within minutes, Freya couldn't get there. She found herself questioning her motives. Why DID she still care about Fratley? If their love was true, then even amnesia wouldn't prevent him from loving her again... Love at first sight, right? Even though it truly wasn't first sight... He should have remembered as soon as he saw her. Remembered at least the feelings that she gave him. That she thought she gave him... The love.  
  
But he didn't.  
  
Did that mean...?  
  
Finally she fell into a turmoiled slumber, her dreams filled with images of Sir Fratley and a constant feeling of dread... 


	7. Trials

Cold as Ice- Trials  
  
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to get up. School and all you know. I have no clue where I'm taking this, really...Well, okay, so I have a faint idea. But I think that's part of what makes it so fun. Oh, and in a re-statement of the disclaimer, I wish I owned the concept behind FF9 and the characters and all that, but I DON'T. So uh, don't sue me and stuff. I do own Boko the Moogle and Mogli the Chocobo, though! They're mine! And...if you'd really like to, you could use them, but credit them to me, and tell me you're using them. I'd appreciate it. (Just, y'know, on the off-chance that the idea may strike you or something.)  
  
  
It was very cold in the Ice Cavern, being nearly made of ice, as it were. And it is a scientific fact that two warm bodies will tend to attract one another given a cold environment. So it was that when Freya jolted awake the following...well, when she jolted awake after a nightmare about Fratley, she found herself sleeping beside, almost on, Amarant.  
  
When she realized this, she blushed a deep crimson and immediately scuttled as far from him as she could manage. That is, she stopped when her back connected with the wall somewhat painfully.  
  
She was chanting something over again and again in her mind. Something along the lines of, "Oh god, I can't believe that just happened."  
  
There was a sudden echoing "Kweh!" throughout the room. The Chocobo, Mogli. Freya looked up at the source of the sound, though she couldn't see, and found that ...well...she couldn't see him. But she heard his blue claws clicking on the stone floor.  
  
The sound of Amarant stirring drew her attention away from the Chocobo. "Please let him not have realized..." she pleaded in her head.  
  
"K-kweh-kweh!" Mogli announced, and she heard him ruffle his wingfeathers.  
  
"The hell...?" Amarant asked, on his feet now.  
  
Mogli repeated what he'd said. Amarant replied, "Uhh...." Freya understood his response, seeing as how she didn't speak Chocobo, either.  
  
The bird stamped his foot on the ground, angry, and ran forward to grab the collar of Amarant's shirt in his beak. Amarant protested, but allowed the Chocobo to drag him off to...wherever he was dragging him off to.  
  
Freya stood there, confused, but at the angry, muffled "kweh!" thrown at her, she followed the sound of the clicking claws. Neither had any idea where they were being led, only that when they got there...they still couldn't see. Then suddenly the darkness lifted, almost as of an esuna being cast. Which, er, it was.  
  
Standing there, in her ridiculously long cloak, and her little mini-skirt, and her purple vest, was Boko.  
  
"You cast Darkness on us!" Freya exclaimed.  
  
"Maybe on you," Amarant responded.  
  
Freya suddenly felt like dying. So had he known? Had he been able to see her, blushing against the wall as she had been? "You mean...you could see?" she asked, trying to hide her anxiety.  
  
"...No. I was just saying that maybe she cast it on you. I know she cast it on me."  
  
She let out a relieved sigh. So he hadn't been able to see her. That was good. That only left the question of whether or not he realized she had been sleeping so closely to him.  
  
"Oh, shut up. I have something to say here, and I'm gonna say it, kupo!" Boko declared.  
  
Freya and Amarant both stared at her, waiting for her to say whatever it was she was going to say.  
  
The silence was long.  
  
Finally, she said, "...Mogli, kupo, what was I gonna say?"  
  
They would've done the classic anime falldown, but...well, they're fanfic-ized. Not animeted. Mogli hung his head in exasperation and said something in Chocobo. Boko brightened with an, "oh yeah!" and began talking.  
  
"You're wondering why I've called you here rather than just letting you rot in that little prison room, aren't you, kupo? Well, I want to exact a little revenge on society, kupo. They're the ones that made me evil and all, kupo, you know." Silence from the two. She continued. "Sooo....kupo.... Just to make this fun, I'm going to put you two through a series of trials. If you pass all six of 'em, you'll get to face me."  
  
"Six?" Amarant questioned.  
  
"Yeah, aren't there usually just three?" agreed Freya. "And can I have my hat back?" It was then that she noticed that Mogli was wearing her hat. She snatched it off of his head and replaced it on her own. If you've never seen a chocobo with hat-feathers, it's quite odd looking.  
  
"Yes, kupo, there are usually three. That's why I'm giving you six. It's TWICE as challenging, kupo!" and she laughed maniacally. Amarant and Freya continued to just stare. "Ahem...kupo. When you get through the six challenges, you'll face me. And then...maybe, just maybe, kupo, if you defeat me....I'll let you go."  
  
"How does that prove society isn't all bad?" Freya asked. This villain was a very confusing one.  
  
"It doesn't! I just want to toy with your lives!" she insisted, with another wicked laugh. "I'm EVIL, kupo!"  
  
"Dude, you're an idiot."  
  
Freya giggled despite herself. Amarant's response was quite accurate. Boko was just annoyed. "Shut up! The trials begin now! Kupo!" Then she and Mogli vanished, leaving in their stead a Behemoth.  
  
The two heroes stared at the beast in awe. "...I can take it," Amarant said, but he sounded a little doubtful.  
  
"This looks tough, even for the two of us together..."  
  
"Just Jump," he said, taking up a fighting stance. "At least that way you'll get out of this."  
  
She hesitated. He said that without emotion, as he said everything, but it sounded like he should've had a concerned tone behind it, even though he didn't. Why?  
  
Amarant rushed in to attack, and as she realized this, jumped into the air. This was going to be a difficult battle. Hopefully the other five challenges wouldn't be as hard as this one would turn up to be. 


	8. Outwitting

Cold as Ice- Outwitting  
  
Authour's note: Oye vey... Yes, it's been a while. Sorry to leave you dudes hanging like that. I just kinda got inspiration for some previous projects a while ago and I dropped this. Don't worry though, I'll finish it eventually ^_^;; I will, really. Oh, yes, and uh... Since I'm not sure whether or not Amarant really HAD eyes in the game, I gave him the sorta eyes I thought he'd have. If it's different, tell me.  
  
  
"Think they'll make it through the tests, kupo?"  
  
"Kweh."  
  
"Didn't I tell you to friggin' wark, kupo?!"  
  
"K...wark?"  
  
"Better, kupo. I hope the Behemoth kills them. That would make this all so much easier, kupo."  
  
"Wark!"  
  
~  
  
But the Behemoth didn't kill them... In fact, Amarant brought it down rather swiftly almost on his own. The two stood there and stared at the creature's corpse, which swiftly vanished into polygons, and then looked to one another, and then back at where the creature had been.  
  
"...Not as hard as I'd thought..." Freya said.  
  
"...Yeah," he replied, looking up at her. She looked up at him, and they stood there for a minute, his eyes locked on hers, and her eyes trying to FIND his. She couldn't though, not through THAT hair.  
  
He turned away abruptly and began walking toward the only exit they could see. She stood there and blinked. It had been an awkward moment. Then she realized that if she lost him, she'd never get out, so she ran after him.  
  
They walked in silence for a good long while before they finally reached anything of interest. Both of them were expecting something a lot harder than the Behemoth for their next trial, so they definitely weren't expecting what they found at the end of the tunnel.  
  
An old man was sitting on the ground of the small cavern that the tunnel opened into. He was a very small, very old man. One of those Yoda/prophet/wise-man-on-the-mountain looking old men.  
  
They stood there for a minute, not to sure what to do. Finally the old man looked up and said in a very clear voice, "Well, what do you want?"  
  
"Uh..." Freya responded.  
  
"To get away from that damn idiot Mog," was Amarant's more useful reply.  
  
"Hmm, you mean Boko? Hmm... Yes, let's see..." He sat there and didn't do or say anything for a long while.  
  
Finally Amarant said, "What are you gonna do about it?"  
  
"Hmmmm...." was the old man's only reply.  
  
He stood there and glared at the old man, waiting for him to say something else. When he didn't, Amarant again demanded to know what he was going to do. Again, the same reply. So Amarant got kind of fed up with that, and tried to slash the old man with his claws.  
  
Apparently dude was a ninja or something because Amarant ended up flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him. Freya ran to his side to make sure he was all right, and was immediately shocked to find out that his unruly flame red hair had moved aside enough for her to see his gorgeous, piercingly bright blue eyes.  
  
She stood there, frozen, and finally he regained his breath and climbed to his feet, and his hair moved into place again, concealing his eyes from her view. He immediately glared at the old man and shouted, "What the heck was that for?!"  
  
"Patience is a virtue."  
  
"Screw th--"  
  
Freya had put a hand over his mouth. "Maybe you should try to TALK, rather than YELL." She looked at the old man, her hand still over Amarant's mouth, and asked kindly, "Excuse me, sir. We were told by Boko that we must pass six trials to gain our freedom. Are you the second?"  
  
"In a sense," he said. "You must outwit me."  
  
They both stood there and stared at him, and Freya finally moved her hand away from Amarant's mouth. Eventually the old man said, "What's two and two?"  
  
"Five," Amarant replied sarcastically.  
  
"WRONG!" And miraculously, Amarant ended up on his back on the ground again.  
  
"You have two more. And you'd better get them both right."  
  
Freya glanced at Amarant, lying there, and then looked back to the old man. "What's the next one?"  
  
"What's black and white and red all over?"  
  
"A newspaper!" she piped up immediately.  
  
"Correct!" he responded. He was silent while Amarant climbed to his feet once more. After the tall rad-head walked over to stand beside Freya again, the old man asked, "Are you ready for the last one?"  
  
Neither replied. They stood there and waited for the question. "If a force of ten newtons is exerted on a box with weight--"  
  
"Uh, two?"  
  
Freya elbowed Amarant harshly, but was amazed when the old man said, "Correct!" They both stared at him in awe. "The answer is two pints of milk!" A large section of rock behind him moved out of the way, revealing another tunnel. "You may continue.  
  
The two glanced at each other, disbelieving, and then stared at the new exit.  
  
"Uh... Let's go..." Amarant said.  
  
"Yeah..." Freya agreed.  
  
And so it was that they passed their second challenge. 


	9. Stilzkin

Cold as Ice- Stilzkin  
  
Authour's Note- I got inspired finally! Yay! And then I went to post and FF.Net had just gone down! Yay! But this is finally up now. Yay.  
Had some problems with my computer, so I couldn't type stuff up for a while. Finally got myself some access for long enough to type this up.  
You may have noticed. Yes, the tasks are getting dumber and dumber! Fun, no? The next part gets us back up to some actual plot. Hooray!  
  
  
They were walking for a while. The air got thicker as they went, so Freya surmised that they were going steadily deeper into the ground.  
  
She wasn't thinking about that, though. She was thinking about Amarant. Again. So he had eyes. Very, very pretty eyes. Sir Fratley's eyes weren't nearly that pretty. So startlingly blue, so...  
  
'What am I thinking?' she interrupted herself in her thoughts. 'I love Fratley! Of course he has gorgeous eyes! Much prettier than Amarant's.' Yet, she couldn't stop thinking about those bright blue eyes cleverly hidden beneath that tangled mass of firey hair.  
  
Her thoughts continued to stray over to Amarant and then consciously snap back to Fratley several times during the walk.  
  
Amarant on the other hand was wondering how in the world that old man had managed to show him what-for so very thouroughly. Then he wondered briefly if Freya had been paying enough attention to it to have caught a glance at his eyes.  
  
Nobody had ever seen his eyes before. Not even Lani. It was his biggest secret.  
  
Then he decided that she'd probably been too busy worrying about seeing Fratley again to notice it. Damn, she needed to wake up and realize that Fratley was gone. He didn't love her anymore. He didn't even know who she was. Why couldn't she see that and get over him already?  
  
And then his thinking sort of tapered off into wondering what the next moronic challenge from Boko the Mog would be.  
  
As they reached the end of the cavern, they found out. Mogli was standing in the middle of the cavern, which was about as big as the one in which they'd faced the old man. He struck a pose as they entered, flaring his wings out and pulling one leg up off the ground as he stood on the toes of his other foot. It was an odd adaptation of the Mantis Position in martial arts. It looked rather goofy on a Chocobo with dyed feathers.  
  
Boko's voice boomed into the room out of nowhere, "You must now fight Mogli, Kupo! And without the usage of your weapons!" Their weapons - Freya's lance and Amarant's claws - mysteriously vanishied then.  
  
Mogli leapt at them, going for a high-kick to Amarant's head. Amarant grabbed the bird's leg, and he sqwaked loudly as Amarant turned him upside-down, and threw him on the ground. He then proceeded to lay there and kweh in a pained manner.  
  
"That's that," Amarant declared.  
  
"That was mean," Freya said, though she had to admit, it was pretty cool.  
  
A door at the other end of the room opened and they glanced at one another before venturing forth into it. These challenges just kept getting stupider and stupider.  
  
They sighed in unison as they entered the next chamber and found a very familiar face. It was a Moogle, dressed in tiger fur, carrying a backpack and a walking stick.  
  
Stilzkin.  
  
"Hey, Kupo!" he greeted cheerfully. "My travels brought me here! Boko's an interesting Moogle, kupo. I knew her as a kid. Never quite got over the way we teased her about her name, kupo."  
  
"What do we need to do here?" Freya asked.  
  
"Kick his ass, hopefully," Amarant said.  
  
"Oh, no, kupo!" Stilzkin said. "Boko said I had to try and sell you stuff, kupo, and not let you haggle!"  
  
"So we need to get him to lower his prices..." Freya said. "That shouldn't be too hard."  
  
"Yeah! I'm selling an Ether, Soft, and Potion for 1,000,000 Gil! Wanna buy 'em?"  
  
They stared at him in shock. All three of those items together cost about 500 Gil in any normal shop.  
  
He awaited their repsonse.  
  
Amarant chose the rather eloquent one of, "Are you CRAZY?"  
  
"Crazy, kupo? No! Do you know what I went through to get these, kupo? I had to climb a hill! A MOLEHILL, KUPO! IT WAS AWFUL! And, kupo, I had to CROSS PUDDLES FOR THIS ETHER! PUDDLES! KUPO!"  
  
They blinked at him.  
  
He folded his arms and insisted, "No less than one million Gil."  
  
"What if we just don't buy them from you?" Amarant asked.  
  
"You have to. If you want out of here, kupo."  
  
He sighed. Freya took the floor. "Well, maybe you could sell them to us for... 1,000 Gil? That's far more than they're worth," was the suggestion she politely put forward.  
  
"1,000 Gil is nowhere near enough to fund my expedition, kupo!"  
  
Then Freya realized suddenly that she had no money on her anyway. She stepped back, grabbing Amarant's arm, and led him a few steps away to ask him in a hushed tone whether he had any on him.  
  
The response was no. They were broke.  
  
"What should we do?" she asked.  
  
"I have an idea." He turned back to Stiltzkin and asked, "Can we borrow a million Gil?"  
  
"I guess, Kupo," he said, instantly adding a million Gil to their inventory.  
  
"We'll pay you nine-hundred-ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety-nine Gil for your items."  
  
He paused, and then shrugged. "Close enough. Here." He added the specified items to their inventory and removed all but one Gil.  
  
Then Amarant handed him back the items and gave him the one Gil back and said, "Now we're even!"  
  
"What the--HEY!" he protested, but Amarant and Freya were already running through the freshly-opened pathway.  
  
"...Stupid...people. It was a friggin' MOLEHILL, KUPO!" he complained, staring sourly at his goods. 


	10. Success

Cold as Ice-Success  
  
Authour's Note: Schnikies, I lost readership. Probably because of my sporadic updates and lack of any real Freya/Amarant-ness. I'll get there, really. I will. Oh, and thanks be to Metallicafangirl for the review that got my ass back in gear ^_^  
  
  
After their flight from Stiltzkin, they entered a huge chamber. They stepped up to the middle of it and suddenly a very loud bang sounded behind him. They both turned immediately to see that the exit behind them had been sealed off.  
  
Freya glanced up at Amarant and said, "Well...we're stuck alone, together, in a huge empty chamber."  
  
As soon as she said that, whatever light source there had been faded and they were left in pitch blackness. "And now it's dark," she sighed.  
  
Boko's voice boomed threateningly over the loudspeaker. "You must find the exit to get out! And you must find it in total darkness!" A wicked laugh something like, "Kuphahahahaha!" followed, and then the speaker clicked off.  
  
They were totally alone and in the dark.  
  
"At least that damn annoying Stilzkin isn't here," Amarant said coldly.  
  
"Shall we look for the exit?" Freya suggested, trying to peer through the darkness, but unable to see anything.  
  
"I think I saw something before the lights went out." Before she could react, he'd grabbed her hand and was leading her somewhere.   
  
She blinked and let herself be led along. He managed to do it without getting her head hit on anything, which was nice. Before she knew it, the lights were back on and Boko's voice was back on the loudspeaker.  
  
"Hey! How'd you do that, kupo? That's not fair! Kupo! Mogli, can they do that?" A "Kweh" sounded from behind her, and she sighed. "Fine, kupo. That's it, I'm cutting you two to your final challenge. Just...uh...kupo...stay right there! Don't move!" Some scuffling sounds ensued, and Mogli "Kweh"ed forlornly into the microphone. "Oh shut up! I didn't mean to step on your foot, kupo!"  
  
Amarant and Freya blinked, but stayed there and waited nonetheless. Suddenly realizing that Amarant still had a hold of her arm, Freya yanked said appendage back, blushing. He took no notice of it.  
  
"Over here, kupo!"  
  
They turned around and saw Boko standing behind them. The moogle struck a battle pose, which looked humourous considering the pink feather behind her ear and the leather mini-skirt she was wearing. "You need to fight me, kupo!" she stated.  
  
Amarant rolled his eyes. "Oh, yes, this will be hard."  
  
"Hey, kupo!" She was indignant. She cast a fire spell on both the unfortunates.  
  
Freya's hat caught fire. She screamed, and threw it away from herself. It hit Boko right in the face.  
  
"AGH!" shouted Boko, running around in circles. "MY FACE!"  
  
Freya and Amarant both paused, watching the Moogle run around. Finally Boko fell to the ground, with both paws over her face, whimpering. The two watchers blinked.  
  
"Kupo," she mourned. "My face, my beautiful face..." She removed her hands, to reveal that she looked no different than before.  
  
"You're fine," Freya pointed out.  
  
"What? You lie! I'm hideous!" She pulled the red ball on her head down so that it obscured half of her face and she wept. "Hideous.... You've made me hideous...kupo..." she hissed.  
  
Amarant turned to Freya and stated, "I suppose we've beaten her." He paused as she looked back at him. Without her hat on, he could actually see her face. She was quite pretty.  
  
"We can go then, can't we?" she asked.  
  
"I guess." He turned and walked away, mentally kicking himself for thinking she was pretty. She was a whiny woman who would never get over her ex-boyfriend. That was not attractive in the least.  
  
She followed after him, toward the only connecting doorway they could see, leaving Boko behind to wallow in her needless misery. The doorway led to what must have been the room they were controlling from, because Mogli was standing in there beside a microphone.  
  
He looked up when they walked in. "Kweh?"  
  
"Show us the way out," Amarant said coldly.  
  
"Kweh!" The oddly coloured chocobo walked to the back of the room and tapped his footclaws on a raised metal platform.  
  
Freya walked to the indicated object, and looked at Mogli. "An elevator?"  
  
"Kweh," he nodded.  
  
She glanced back at Amarant. "Let's go. We need to find Zidane and the others to let them know we're not dead."  
  
He nodded his agreement, and they both stepped up onto the metal platform. Mogli kicked the switch that sat next to it, and with a creak the contraption started up, pulling them both upward and away from the insane Moogle. 


	11. Mist

Cold as Ice- Mist  
  
Authour's Note: ^_^; don't worry, I'm not ending it yet. There's a lot left to do here; it won't end anytime soon. And I'm gonna work harder on updating this on a regular basis. Feel special! I took a story-writing hiatus but this story wasn't covered by it ^_^ I must love my readers, huh?  
  
  
The elevator platform stopped, and the pair realized they were on the world map, just beside the exit of the Ice Cavern. That exit happened to be blocked by a rather large root. Being as they were on the World Map, however, they couldn't communicate with each other. They headed off to the nearest Area Map so they could converse.  
  
That happened to be the Dali Mountain Observatory. That was blocked off by a large root as well, however, so they went to Dali and entered the town.  
  
Amarant looked around uncomfortably as they entered. Freya noticed this discomfort and asked, "What's wrong?"  
  
"I don't like this place," he replied. "It's...small."  
  
"Of course," she chuckled. "It's just a little farming village, after all."  
  
A small child ran up to them, looking up at Freya. She smiled down at him, and he said, "Hi, Miss. I seen you before."  
  
"I've been here before," she told him, kneeling so they were eye-to-eye. "With the man with the tail."  
  
"I thought so." He glanced up at Amarant, and stepped to the side, away from the large man. "Um...welcome to Dali," he said, sounding uncomfortable, and then he turned and ran off.  
  
"Oh, wait!" Freya called out, but the child didn't hear her. "I needed to ask him about the roots blocking the Cavern and Observatory."  
  
"Who knows," Amarant sighed. "Let's just find that idiot Zidane and kill Kuja."  
  
"He probably thinks we're dead, doesn't he?" she realized. "We really should find him then."  
  
"We won't find him here. Let's go look."  
  
"Wait. I want to ask around about the roots that are everywhere."  
  
He shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll be waiting at the inn." He turned away and walked through the inn door. She gazed after him for a moment, then turned away, glancing over the small town.  
  
Seeing the boy that had addressed her previously, she ran up to him and said, "Excuse me, Young Sir."  
  
He looked up at her and smiled. "Oh, hello Miss."  
  
"Do you know anything about the big roots that have sprouted out of the ground so suddenly?" she asked. "Or know anybody who could tell me?"  
  
The boy paused for a moment, thoughtful, and finally responded, "My mommy might know."  
  
"Could you show me where she is?"  
  
He pointed to the vegetable field where, Freya knew, an old woman would be tending the harvest. "She's there."  
  
"Thank you very much, Young Sir." She gave him a kind smile, and then walked off to the field. Sure enough, the old woman was out there tending it, but in the corner was a younger woman, staring at the airfield in which airships took off and landed. Freya stepped up to her and greeted with, "Hello, Madam."  
  
The woman looked at her. "Oh, hello," she smiled.  
  
"I was wondering if you knew anything about the large roots that have suddenly sprung from the ground."  
  
"Oh...those... No, I don't know anything. They just appeared all of a sudden. Have you looked at the valley lately? It's covered in Mist!"  
  
"What?" Freya's eyes widened.  
  
"Aye! Mist! There's mist monsters everywhere! And here we thought it was gone for good!"  
  
The Mist was back! That couldn't be a good sign, not at all. Amarant needed to hear this. Freya bowed her head slightly to the woman with a, "Thank you, Madam," and left, heading back to the inn.  
  
Amarant, true to his word, was waiting for her just inside. He looked over as she entered and she ran up to him, looking panicked. "The Mist is back!"  
  
"What?" His tone was flat, though.  
  
"The Mist! It's back, it's covering the valleys again. Do you think that has anything to do with the roots?"  
  
"Maybe." He sounded unenthused, though.  
  
"We really need to ask Zidane about this. I'm sure he knows for certain."  
  
"How are we going to find him?"  
  
"...I don't know..." A thought hit her suddenly, and she said, "The Observatory! We could find the Airship with it!"  
  
"It's blocked off."  
  
Her face fell. "It is, isn't it? Maybe there's some other way in?"  
  
"Maybe." He didn't sound like he meant it, though.  
  
She sighed. "We should sleep on this. Hopefully a new day will bring some new ideas."  
  
He nodded wordlessly and walked into the bedroom. Dali's inn only contained one bedroom, with four beds. She blushed faintly as she realized she'd be sleeping in the same room as Amarant, but then pushed the thought out of her head and followed him.  
  
~  
  
Freya didn't sleep very soundly. She woke up in the middle of the night, and realized she'd been crying. Over what, she couldn't remember; her dream faded with her first painful pang of consciousness. She closed her eyes and rolled over onto her side, pulling the covers over her head. She paused as she realized she could hear the soft sound of Amarant snoring. A faint giggle escaped her mouth as she thought, 'He snores like Fratley.'  
  
She sighed, then, at the remembrance of Fratley. His memory was painful, but she couldn't let him go. She had to believe that he still loved her. If he didn't, then who would? Who else was there for her?  
  
After a while, she decided that she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so she got up. She walked to the window, which looked out at the city's ground level, and gazed up. If she got really close and craned her head upward, she could see the stars in the sky. It was too difficult to watch for any long period of time, though, so she turned away from it after a while.  
  
Her eyes passed over Amarant's sleeping form as she turned, and she stopped, gazing down at him. The large man looked oddly out of place, under the soft white linens of the bed. She walked over to the bedside and looked down at him.  
  
He was adorable when he slept, in the manner that a troublemaking child is. She let a soft smile cross her face, as her mind connected him with Fratley once again, though there was no real connection to make.  
  
Why did she keep doing that? He wasn't like Fratley at all, but every time she saw Amarant, she thought of him. Or whenever she thought of Fratley, her thoughts strayed to Amarant. Why?  
  
She loved Fratley, didn't she?  
  
"I must just miss him..." she sighed resignedly, as she walked back to her bed to attempt again to fall back into slumber. 


	12. Reunion

Cold as Ice- Reunion  
  
Authour's Note- Look, I updated again less than a week later! Go me! This "being consistent" thing is totally godlike!  
  
  
Freya awoke the following morning and, feeling the comfortable mattress beneath her, wondered suddenly where she was. Then memories came flooding back and she remembered, with a grimace, the insane Moogle she'd been forced to face, along with Amarant. She sat up and looked around, knowing that she was in the Dali inn. A glance toward the other side of the room told her that Amarant was already awake, so she got up and went to look for him.  
  
He was in the main room of the inn (its only other room), leaning, arms crossed, against the wall next to the Save Moogle. Suddenly conscious of herself, Freya combed her fingers through her short white hair to straighten it. She didn't have her hat to hide under now.  
  
He looked up as she entered.  
  
"Morning," she said brightly.  
  
"Hmph."  
  
She frowned slightly, ever so slightly. It bothered her, his refusal to greet her, though she wasn't sure why it should. "We need to find Zidane," she told him, ignoring her thoughts.  
  
"How do you propose we do that?"  
  
"I don't know," she sighed.  
  
There was a long silence. Finally, Amarant turned and walked out of the inn. "Hey!" protested Freya, running after him. He stopped outside the door and she nearly ran into him. "What's the big idea?" she demanded.  
  
He pointed upward. "See that ship?"  
  
She looked up. A large airship with a red gem set in its bottom was flying overhead. At first glance the large gem could almost be mistaken for a huge red eye. She knew they'd seen it somewhere before, maybe in one of the earlier FMVs...  
  
"Isn't that--"  
  
"I have a feeling that's them."  
  
She blinked. Amarant having feelings of any sort was an amazement to her.  
  
"Come on." He grabbed her arm and dragged her out of Dali, onto the World Map.  
  
They followed after the ship all the way to where it finally landed, by Treno. They arrived on screen just in time to see Zidane disembark and enter the town. They entered soon after and stopped within the city gates.  
  
"Which way did he go?" asked Freya.  
  
"You check there. I'll go this way," Amarant declared flatly, pointing first to his left, and then to the other path on the right.  
  
She nodded. "We'll meet back here." Without even acknowledging her, he ran off in the direction he'd chosen for himself. She felt like hitting something. Why did he always do that?  
  
Walking down the path to her left, she thought over what was going on. Mist was everywhere now, but they'd gotten rid of it, hadn't they? What had happened during their plight in the Ice Cavern? And why was Amarant so damn anti-social? She was so deep in her thoughts that she almost tripped over Eiko, who was standing in the middle of the path.  
  
"EEEEE!" the little summoner screamed, upon seeing Freya. "A GHOST!"  
  
"Calm down, Eiko!" she exclaimed. "It's me, Freya!"  
  
"But Dagger said you were dead!" Eiko exclaimed, eyes wide.  
  
"I'm not. Amarant's okay, too. Where's Zidane?"  
  
"Follow me!" The little girl ran off, and Freya followed her. Zidane was standing in front of the Card Stadium, playing against the old man standing beside his son. "Zidane!" shouted Eiko, excitedly, as soon as they saw him.  
  
He looked up, saw Freya, and leapt to his feet. "FREYA!" Grinning, he ran to her and looked up. "You're okay! What happened? Tell me all about it!"  
  
"I'll tell you later," she said. "Let's get everyone together, first."  
  
He nodded. "I'll go get Dagger and the others. Is Amarant okay?"  
  
"Yeah, he's looking for you. I'll go find him. I'll meet you at the city gates."  
  
"You got it! Let's go, Eiko!" The two went to go gather the rest of the group.  
  
Freya stood there a moment, relieved that she'd finally found the rest of the group, until the old man's shout interrupted her thoughts. "Hey! I was playin' a game against that guy!"  
  
She rolled her eyes and started walking off, but he shouted again and she stopped, sighing. "I don't care," she told him angrily.  
  
"Leave her alone."  
  
She blinked. Amarant's voice. She turned and saw him standing in front of the old man, looking threatening and powerful as usual. "It's not her problem," he continued to tell the card player.  
  
He blanched under Amarant's huge shadow and took a few steps back. "Y-you're right, Sir, many apologies, I'm sorry, don't hurt me."  
  
Without another word, Amarant turned and left, walking past Freya. "Amarant, wait...!" He ignored her and continued walking. She sighed and followed him back to the city gates, where they met up with the rest of the party.  
  
"Freya! Amarant!" Dagger exclaimed happily. "It's so good to see both of you again! I knew you were alive!"  
  
"Yeah right," Zidane retorted, elbowing her gently. "You're the one who told me to give up hope."  
  
"I did not!" But she sounded guilty.  
  
It didn't matter, Freya was just glad to be back.  
  
"What happened?" Vivi asked, shy and quiet as usual.  
  
"Yes, Miss Freya," Steiner agreed, "tell us what happened."  
  
Obligingly, Freya related the story. Amarant contributed whenever she asked, though with very short responses. When she was done, the group, Zidane, Dagger, Eiko, Vivi, Steiner, and Quina, all looked at them with some sort of amazement.  
  
"An evil Moogle?" Eiko questioned, sounding almost sad. "Moogles aren't evil..."  
  
"That's an incredible story," said Dagger. "Zidane, should we do something about those two?"  
  
"What, a Moogle named Boko? What kind of trouble could she possibly cause?" he scoffed.  
  
As if in answer, a large rumble sounded from the nearby mountains. Everyone looked at each other, and then to the town exit. Without anybody saying anything, they all rushed out to see what the sound was about. 


	13. Resurfacing

Cold as Ice- Resurfacing  
  
Authour's Note: Well, so much for being consistent -_-;... A lot of stuff's been going on over here lately, like college applications and family occasions and things like that. And with me suddenly having intense bursts of inspiration for all my OTHER stories, this one receded to the back of my mind for a long long time. Um... I'm gonna TRY to update again within the next month, I swear ^_^;  
As soon as the party stepped out onto the world map, they saw that a new area map had appeared nearby, in the mountains. They ran to it, and when they got there, they saw that it was a cave entrance, recently blown into the rocks. The dust was still settling.  
  
Dagger coughed. "How did this happen?" she asked, looking up at the entrance.  
  
"These mountains are riddled with caves," said Amarant. "She just needed to blow out an opening."  
  
"Boko?" Zidane questioned.  
  
As if in answer, a chocobo with dyed feathers ran out of the caves, with a skirted, caped, feather-wearing moogle astride its back. Mogli stopped just beyond the newly made entrance, and Boko, whose face was now concealed by a mask, cried, "I'll make you pay for ruining me!"  
  
"Ruining WHAT?" Freya protested.  
  
"How dare you insult me!" she shouted. "That's it, now I'm mad! Come, Mogli!"  
  
"Kweh!" he kwehed, and turned and fled back into the caverns.  
  
Zidane blinked. "Well, that was interesting..."  
  
"I wonder what she's planning in there," Dagger mused.  
  
"The only way to find out is if we follow her!" Zidane grinned.  
  
"Why bother? What can she do to the rest of the world from inside that cave?"  
  
Zidane ignored Amarant and ran forward into the caves. Dagger followed him, Steiner followed her, Vivi followed him, and Eiko followed Vivi. Quina followed Eiko just to follow.  
  
Freya turned to Amarant, who looked annoyed with Zidane's having ignored him, and said softly, "Well, I agree with you, if it's any consolation."  
  
He didn't respond. Instead, he followed the others into the cave, leaving her there. She frowned, becoming increasingly aggravated with him, and then followed as well.  
  
Within the caves, Zidane and the others had stopped at a fork in the road. There were two potential paths, and they didn't know which to choose.  
  
"I say we split up," Zidane suggested.  
  
"Splitting up is--"  
  
"I'll go with Zidane," Dagger said, interrupting Amarant. He turned toward her and seemed to be glaring at her from beneath his unruly red mane.  
  
"I must accompany the princess," Steiner announced.  
  
"Okay, so me, Dagger, and Rusty," Zidane said, then he looked at the others.  
  
"I'll go with Amarant." As soon as she'd said it, Freya wondered why. She was starting to feel sorry for him now, the way Zidane and Dagger kept ignoring him or cutting him off. Sympathy, she guessed, and nothing more.  
  
"Okay. Vivi, Eiko, why don't you go with Freya and Amarant, and Quina can come with us."  
  
"Okay," Vivi responded shyly, with a nod.  
  
"We'll meet back here when one of us finds something," Dagger said, and then her group turned and walked down the left passage.  
  
Amarant looked down at Eiko and Vivi. "Hmph. Stuck babysitting."  
  
"Hey!" Eiko protested, pouting angrily up at him.  
  
"It's okay, he doesn't mean it," Freya smiled.  
  
Vivi blinked, and craned his head back to look up at Freya. "Your hat's gone."  
  
"Yeah. It caught fire when we fought Boko. I told you that, didn't I?"  
  
"You look a lot prettier without it," Eiko announced, before she turned to walk down the path. Vivi followed closely behind her.  
  
Freya blinked. As Amarant walked by, she heard him whisper, "She's right."  
  
~  
  
As they wandered through the cave, Freya's thoughts kept turning to what Amarant had said. It didn't seem like the sort of thing he'd normally do. It left her wondering. And the previous incident in Treno with the card-player... He'd stood up for her then. Did Amarant...have a thing for her?  
  
She shook her head violently to clear it of the thought. It was pure nonsense. Amarant couldn't think of anything beyond fighting and himself.  
  
"Are you okay?" Vivi asked.  
  
"Huh?" She looked at him and flashed him a reassuring smile. "I'm fine."  
  
"Anybody else hear anything?" Eiko asked, glancing from side to side.  
  
Amarant held his arms out for everyone to stop, and since he was leading the group, they did. "I hear it," he said.  
  
Freya could hear it too. A quiet series of clicks, like claws against tile, but very even and rhythmic.  
  
"What is it?" asked Eiko, as she looked around the cave.  
  
"Sounds like--"  
  
The clicks suddenly grew together into a long drawn-out tone, and a grinding sound was heard. Freya found herself thrown to the ground as a loud thud sounded behind her. She moved to stand, and saw Amarant doing the same beside her. She realized immediately that he'd shoved her, and she was about to shout at him.   
  
Then she saw the large section of ceiling that was missing from the cave roof immediately behind their group. Metal wires were attached to the sheet of rock on the ground, and with a groan they started to shorten, pulling the piece of roof back up into its spot. As soon as it settled there, the clicking started again.  
  
"A timer," Amarant finished, as he dusted himself off. He looked to Freya. "Are you okay?"  
  
Why did he ask? That was definitely out of character of him. "I'm fine," she nodded. "Thanks." She looked over at the two children, who were staring wide-eyed at the cave roof. "Are you two all right?"  
  
"We're fine, you were the only one standing under it," Eiko responded.  
  
"I wonder if there are more things like this in the cave," Vivi pondered.  
  
"Probably. That Mog's crazy." Amarant turned away from Freya and started walking down the path again. "Keep listening for another one of those timers."  
  
Eiko and Vivi ran after him, and Freya followed behind at a slower pace than the two children. Why had he saved her? Could he possibly have grown attached to her somehow during their trials in the Ice Cavern? No, that was madness. If Amarant was "attached" to anybody, it was probably Lani.  
  
Freya didn't like Lani much. The woman was just annoying. What did Amarant see in her, anyway?  
  
She shook her head. 'I'm being silly,' she thought. 'Amarant doesn't have a thing for Lani.' The thought was ridiculous. Amarant having feelings for anybody was an absurd notion. He probably had saved her just because he knew he'd need somebody more skilled in battle than the two children to get through here. The random battles were pretty tough.  
  
The clicking sound reached her ears again, and she looked up. There was a slit on either side of the wall, up ahead, near where Amarant was. She realized what was going to happen, and ran forward just as the solid tone was starting. She grabbed Amarant's collar and hauled him back, just as parallel spikes slammed out from each of the slits, creating a wall of bars in the middle of the path.  
  
Amarant stared at the spikes as they receded back into their proper places. "Are you okay?" Freya asked, and he turned to her.  
  
Her eyes widened as soon as he did, because now she could see blood running down his arm. "Oh god, you're bleeding," she said, leaning down to inspect it.  
  
He looked down at his right arm. There was a gash down his forearm; the spike had grazed him as Freya had pulled him away. "It's fine," he said, pulling his arm away from her.  
  
"That looks really bad," Eiko piped up.  
  
"It's just a flesh wound," he protested coldly.  
  
"Let me take care of it." Freya tried to look at the wound, but he turned away from her.  
  
"It's fine," he insisted.  
  
Freya glared at him. Why was he doing this? She had saved his life, and now she was just trying to help. Why was he always so cold to her?  
  
"I have Cure," Eiko offered.  
  
Freya shook her head. "That only restores HP. It doesn't heal wounds."  
  
"I'm perfectly fine," Amarant insisted again.  
  
"Well you won't be if you just let it bleed," Freya responded, annoyed, glaring up at him with her arms akimbo.  
  
After a short silence, he grudgingly extended his arm to her. "Fine, then fix it."  
  
She blinked. He'd relented. That didn't seem like something he'd do. But she took the opportunity as it was given, and took out a first aid kit to bind the wound.  
  
"Why weren't you paying attention to the timer?" she asked, as she started bandaging the gash.  
  
"My mind was on something else," he replied, with that same flat tone to his voice that he always had. As he said it, his gaze moved up to her eyes, and she involuntarily moved hers to his, or where she thought they were, anyway.  
  
They stared at one another like this for quite some time, until Eiko waved her hand between them, blocking their gazes from one another, and asked, "Hello? You two okay, there?"  
  
The solid tone sounded again, and the spikes slammed out behind them. Freya looked at the wall of bars, and then back at Amarant. Wordlessly, she went back to bandaging his arm.  
  
The way he'd looked at her after saying "my mind was on other things"... That had to mean something. Did it mean...his mind was on her? She frowned at the thought. Of course his mind wasn't on her. And if it was, should she even care? She had Fratley to think of. She--...kept thinking about Amarant instead.  
  
She looked up at his face, and when she saw that he was watching her, she blushed and focused on his bleeding arm again. When she had finished, she stood without looking at him, and said, "Okay, let's go."  
  
"Thanks," he told her.  
  
She found herself blushing deeper, so she turned away from him.  
  
Eiko's loud voice interrupted the moment. "Are you sick or something, Freya?"  
  
"No, I'm fine," she replied, shaking her head. "We should wait for the trap to activate again before we go."  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Amarant nod in agreement. She took a deep, cleansing breath, and tried her hardest not to think about him. 


	14. ANNOUNCEMENT

Sorry to do this, but CAI is officially dead. I've lost all will to work on it, despite the nifty fanart of Boko that I got. I just can't come up with anything that leads to a semi-decent outcome.  
  
I'm sorry to do this to my fans, but I just can't keep working on it. If anybody wants to, like, I dunno, pick it up from me and finish it, feel free (though I'd like it if you asked me first).  
  
~Guin 


End file.
